hackchinese

[hackchinese]

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

With respect to Chinese dishes, individuals tend to think they are solid and scrumptious. Indeed, they are. Yet, today, I might want to acquaint with you a absurdly delightful and puzzling cooking from the place where I grew up: buddha jumps over the wall . Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a Chinese name which sounds exhausting. Give me a chance to give you its English interpretation — "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall". It's just plain obvious, amazing and funny! Actually, its name doesn't make any relationship with flavorful nourishment. Befuddled? I will disclose to you the story behind that.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a well known Fujianese (Fujian is a southeastern area in China) dish frequently served at luxurious meals. Setting up the dish is troublesome and tedious, for it unites a wide range of fixings. Buddha Jumps over the Wall is produced using various rarities and is viewed as one of the preeminent dishes in Chinese food. A run of the mill formula requires numerous fixings including quail eggs, bamboo shoots, scallops, ocean cucumber, abalone, shark blade, chicken, Jinhua ham (viewed as the best ham in China), pork ligament, ginseng, mushrooms, and taro. A few formulas require up to thirty fundamental fixings and twelve sauces. Utilization of shark blade, which is here and there reaped by shark finning, and abalone, which is embroiled in ruinous angling rehearses, are disputable for both natural and moral reasons. Extraordinary expertise is required to set up the dish: in excess of 10 fixings must be stewed gradually for a long time with simply the privilege measure of warmth. The dish has a great fragrance and is basically powerful. All things considered, the aptitude to cook this riddle food is considered as a national mystery which is unbendingly ensured by the Chinese Government, which in part clarifies why it is so costly.

About the starting point of its clever name, there are three forms of stories. The soonest specify of the expression "Buddha Jumps over the Wall" shows up in a book from the Song tradition (960-1279 BC). Stories proliferate with regards to the source of the dish's beautiful name. As per one adaptation, the fragrant scent of the dish was powerful to the point that it incited a Buddhist priest to move over the religious community divider to experience it.

Another variant says that a priest arranged the dish one day, adding numerous non-vegan fixings to his stew and that when he was gotten eating it he needed to jump over his cloister dividers to get away. In any case, it is difficult to demonstrate or invalidate both of these renditions. A third story says that amid the Qing tradition (1644-1911 BC), the dish was first arranged by an authority from Fuzhou (the place where I grew up where I burned through the multi-year before school), who was attempting to establish a decent connection on his predominant, Zhou Lian. He consolidated numerous fixings; including pork, duck, and chicken, and stewed them gradually in an urn that was utilized to hold Shaoxing wine (Shaoxing is a well-known city in Eastern China and well known for Eastern style Chinese sustenance and shocking customary Chinese water city landscape with the acclaim of Eastern Venice). In the wake of tasting the dish, Zhou lauded it bountifully and asked what the dish was called. The man answered that it was planned to bring "good fortunes and success, joy and lifespan," thus it was called Happiness and Longevity. Zhou's gourmet expert at that point recorded the formula and enhanced the dish, and at the point when Zhou served it to his visitors somebody composed a couple of lines, saying that "The fragrant scent invades the area, so priests overlook their Zen contemplations and come bouncing over the divider." Ever from that point forward the dish has been known as buddha jumps over the wall.

Since Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is made of numerous valuable fixings and devour much time to be arranged, and even requires a gifted gourmet expert with rich experience to control the season of stewing, it is exceptionally costly for visitors to have a true Buddha Jumps Over the Wall in the place where I grew up. With respect to me, I just have tasted bona fide Buddha Jumps Over the Wall once amid a family get-together ten years back. In those days, that cooking cost around 100 USD in eateries. Today, you may need to pay up to 500 USD to get it in the couple of eateries that continue serving it. I don't figure I can portray how staggeringly delightful it is with my pale words.

Be that as it may, I do trust this cooking has an enchantment to influence you to feel fulfilled and glad since when I had it, at first spoon. It resembled a cluster of daylight illuminated my reality absolutely instantly, which influenced me to feel that it is such a fortune to be alive and that life is so beautiful; I couldn't resist going gaga for it. I swear that the remarkable flavor encounter it brought me is the best kind of joy brought by nourishment I have encountered up until now. Give me a chance to demonstrate to you some beautiful pictures to make you draw nearer to my most loved cooking—Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

[hackchinese]

learn Chinese for beginner

Numerous individuals say Chinese is the most troublesome dialect on the planet. Some may not concur, but rather the truth of the matter is that Chinese is unquestionably difficult for apprentices. To begin learning Chinese, you have to genuinely set yourself up. Be that as it may, how to locate the correct method to contemplate Chinese for amateurs? How can one not end up detached to this dialect and keep on studying it notwithstanding when it appears as though it’s difficult to find success with it? Here, I might want to impart a few hints to the individuals who have quite recently begun to learn Chinese.

How about we begin with this: be ready that the start of taking in the dialect is the most troublesome period in concentrate Chinese. The principal month or month and a half of Chinese dialect classes will appear to simply be exercises of singing and drawing. The instructor will educate you on the most proficient method to legitimately sing the tones and draw the characters perfectly. However, at that point all of a sudden, a similar educator will request that you learn 30 new characters at the same time, influence you to rehash sentences a few times until the point that you effectively take after the tones, and gives you new syntactic developments. At this stage, numerous fledglings can’t stand such a hop from basic exercises to complex ones and surrender. Trust me, in the event that you conquer this and continue going, you will receive the benefits of your endeavors, and the characters and way of talking will, in the long run, get comfortable.

Second, contemplate for shorter eras, yet do it all the more frequently. It is smarter to give in any event 30 minutes consistently than to sit for a considerable length of time on Saturday endeavoring to remember such a significant number of new characters without a moment’s delay. In the wake of taking in another word, attempt to think of a sentence, to play with it. So on the off chance that you have learned “to contemplate” 学习（xué xí）, consider the things which you and your companions or relatives ponder and portray them, for instance, 我学习汉语，我姐姐学习英语（Wǒ xuéxí hànyǔ, wǒ jiějie xuéxí yīng yǔ）.

Painstakingly think about the characters and note their implications. Perhaps the word and the character help you to remember something? Possibly it causes some psychological affiliations? This can help apprentices a ton in recollecting new vocabulary. This sort of remembering is called memory helpers and is extremely valuable for taking in the Chinese dialect. A case of mental helpers in Chinese is this word: “to have rest” 休（xiū）. Here you can envision a man (the left half of the character), having a rest under a tree (the correct side of the character). This case is just a single out of many analogical cases.

Here’s another tip: don’t endeavor to put excessively numerous words into your head at the same time. Take ten new words and do with them everything that is said in the past passage. Do this to the point that the words and characters are planted in your memory, with the goal that they get comfortable and simple for you.

Next, I might want you to focus on the radicals. Chinese characters can be deconstructed into parts called radicals. When I began to examine Chinese with my colleagues, we were compelled to learn radicals and compose correspondences consistently. We genuinely did not comprehend why we expected to get the hang of something that can’t be utilized independently. Simply after some time did we understand that the radicals resemble the blocks for a house. They resemble the establishment of a symbolic representation. They are keys to help figure the significance of an obscure character, to help comprehend what sort of elocution it can have. The most essential thing is that knowing the radicals causes you to become acclimated to characters and figure out how to recognize them since when you simply begin to learn Chinese online, each character is by all accounts resemble a similar arrangement of lines. For instance, the character “brush” 笔 （bǐ）has two radicals – bamboo and fleece. On the off chance that we secure a bamboo stay with a bit of fleece together, we will get a brush.

Taking everything into account, I might want to accentuate this: don’t stop considering Chinese, regardless of what happens. Truly, toward the starting it will appear that the local speakers don’t comprehend anything you say, the characters you compose are appalling and abnormal, and sentence structure botches happen all of a sudden. In any case, Chinese is a delightful dialect that you should love on the off chance that you need to talk it. It took me quite a long while to love it truly. I attempted to change from Chinese to European dialects, yet inevitably I returned to the Chinese dialect, and I’m not going to quit considering it, regardless of whether it takes me my entire life to think about it.

[hackchinese]

that’s Chinese language

Lots of people could have experienced the difficulties of finding out a new language as a 2nd language, especially for discovering the Chinese language, because it doesn’t resemble any kind of western languages.

My discovery is that finding out the Chinese language could be less complicated if you know the rules. The hard component is to be persistent in memorizing exactly what you have found out. For functional use, Chinese language in daily real-time, all you require is 2,000 personalities for a start. While in English, this quantity of words to understand prior to an individual could practically use the language in day-to-day life can conveniently increase to 10,000 words. To get more information about it you can follow the Chinese language.

Does it take any dedications for discovering a new language? Yes and also obviously. It takes tremendous technique, devotion as well as years of practices for totally mastering a new language, and able to connect with complete confidence with an additional person utilizing that language. Nonetheless, if you apply some particular methods to a devoted function of utilizing the language, such as for short-term taking a trip, you can achieve your goal within a certain amount of time.

During my technique of training Chinese, I recognized the hardest component to discover the Chinese language is to bear in mind the Chinese characters and their pronunciation. When you have known enough Chinese characters, able to pronounce them as well as understand ways to place them right into significant words, things become much easier for you. All you need to do is only one thing: keep utilizing the Chinese personalities till you recognize with ways to put them into words and also sentences, and find out more characters at the exact same time. Consequently, to find the simplest way of keeping in mind the Chinese personalities is a crucial step in understanding the language in the fastest method.

To master the Chinese characters, writing is the hardest part. Thankfully a student could opt to discover the enunciations first, without learning the writing. This is typically a benefit for international pupils finding out Chinese as their Second language because it substantially shortens the time to master the singing skills for daily conversation making use of Chinese. So my referral is that if you don’t require the ability to compose Chinese personalities you can leave it at the beginning. Learn more about it by following the link Chinese characters.

Get more information about Chinese characters and language by following the link.

Currently, do you discover discovering the Chinese language is much easier compared to what you assume? I suppose the response to should of individuals are: “Yes, yet still not easy enough, the enunciation parts are still difficult.” Allow me to tell you some tips just to make it much easier. First off, the alpha bits for pronunciations are stood for by Latin letters, as long as you could bear in mind just how the English letters are pronounced in Latin, you could articulate every Chinese character. Second, there are 4 tones in the pronunciation of Chinese characters, and also each character pronounces 1 or 2 of the 4 tones. In a particular sentence, each character has just 1 pronunciation with a specific tone, based on the context of the sentence.

My ideal guidance to find out the Chinese language is that you start from finding out 1 sentence at a time. For every sentence you discover, aim to bear in mind each Chinese character: just what does it resemble, how does it articulate with the tone, and also just what does it imply. And afterward, purpose to exercise this sentence whenever you can. Accumulatively if you find out 1 sentence of 7 personalities each day, for a year you could master over 2000 characters, which suffices for fundamental discussions in every day online.

[hackchinese]

Shandong Cuisine

Shandong territory fringe the ocean, so Shandong cooking profoundly affected by the ocean bottom. Individuals in Shandong get a kick out of the chance to utilize flavoring and enhancing to make cooking more flavorful. As one of the eight noteworthy cooking styles of China, it assumes an essential part in Chinese foods. The Shandong food is made of eastern Shandong dishes, Confucius dishes, and Jinan dishes.

For Shandong situates in rice fields, it's a fundamental wheat-developing zone in China. Individuals in Shandong even get a kick out of the chance to eat nourishments made of wheat flour as staple nourishment. It's basic to see that Shandong individuals eat huge cakes loaded down with scallions or minced meat when they eat three suppers every day.

The cooking is for the most part salty, with a commonness of light-shading sauces. The dishes include chosen materials, proficient ability in cutting and culminate cooking methods. Shandong food is illustrative of northern China's cooking and its procedures have been generally consumed by the royal dishes of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Basic Raw Material and Cooking Techniques of Shandong Cuisine

Basic crude material: onions, ocean cucumber, pork, vegetable and other sea-going items.

Cooking Techniques: snappy blending, profound browning, mix searing, braising et cetera.

Shandong Flavor

Individuals in Shandong get a kick out of the chance to make their food fresh, scrumptious, sweet and acrid flavor, and delicate. In addition, Shandong individuals particularly get a kick out of the chance to utilize onion as one of the material in Shandong cooking. The dishes incorporate braised ocean cucumber with onion, ligament stewed with onions, and meat stewed with onions. Broil meats are likewise presented with onions.

Must-attempt Famous Shandong Cuisines - Dezhou Stewed Chicken— — 德州扒鸡

It's one of the runs of the mill Shandong foods, stewed with nectar, fennel, sugar and different condiments for a few hours. In the 1950's, Dezhou stewed chicken is eaten by president Mao, at that point, it'is known all through the nation. The chicken is so all around cooked, despite the fact that the state of the chicken is saved, the meat effectively isolates from the bone.

Shandong food - Chicken Ball in Milk Soup

Individuals in Shandong get a kick out of the chance to utilize drain to make soup. Drain soup is an image of Shandong food. The fundamental materials of this food are chicken bosom and water chestnut. Cush the chicken bosom and water chestnut into sloppy shape, at that point stewed with drain and water for a few hours. The soup is loaded with aroma with drain and chicken.

Shandong cooking - Braised Sea Cucumber with Onion 葱烧海参

Braised ocean cucumber with onion is one of the exemplary Shandong foods. This course is loaded with solid fragrant onion season, can be portrayed as a tasty delicacy with full shading and scent. To influence this course, to utilize the best green onion—Zhangqiu green onion is the key, rotisserie it until the point when it swings to brilliant shading. At that point disseminate it onto the braised ocean cucumber, the source would be an ideal match with each other with completely aroma yet still keep the freshness of the ocean cucumber very much safeguarded.

well known Shandong food - Braised Prawns 红烧大虾

The Braised Prawns is a well-known food in Shandong territory. Since the Shandong area has a long coastline and a rich wellspring of fish rarities, eating fish here is an absolute necessity do! Shrimp come back to Bohai and the Yellow Sea each spring and harvest time. Prawn is renowned for delectable taste, delightful shading and rich sustenance. Shrimp has a rich protein, high healthful esteem and rich mineral, (for example, calcium, phosphorus, press, etc.).Its meat is delicate and simple to process and exceptionally useful to human wellbeing.

renowned Shandong food - Braised Intestines in Brown Sauce 九转大肠

As an outsider, you probably won't be occupied with attempting any digestion tracts however this course is a famous star among local people in Shandong area.

The course was made in a nearby eatery Qing line around 200 years prior. Its delicate surface and hot fragrant have caught numerous gourmets to continue requesting it in any Shandong include eateries.

well known Shandong cooking - Four Happy Meatballs 四喜丸子

Four Happy Meatballs is one of the agent dishes of Shandong cooking, and furthermore a renowned dish in China. The meatball is made of pork, mushroom and different fixings. It is a comparable dish to the "red lion head" which is another meatball dish well known in the southern regions in China. Since "Four Happy Meatballs" conveys a decent significance other than being scrumptious, this course is a significant conventional and mainstream course amid Chinese New Year time.

[hackchinese]

About the Chinese language

Lots of people could have experienced the difficulties of finding out a new language as 2nd language, especially for discovering the Chinese language, because it doesn’t resemble any kind of western languages.

My discovery is that finding out the Chinese language could be less complicated if you know the rules. The hard component is to be persistent in memorizing exactly what you have found out. For functional use, Chinese language in daily real-time, all you require is 2,000 personalities for a start. While in English, this quantity of words to understand prior to an individual could practically use the language in day-to-day life can conveniently increase to 10,000 words. To get more information about it you can follow the Chinese language.

Does it take any dedications for discovering a new language? Yes and also obviously. It takes tremendous technique, devotion as well as years of practices for totally mastering a new language, and able to connect with complete confidence with an additional person utilizing that language. Nonetheless, if you apply some particular methods to a devoted function of utilizing the language, such as for short-term taking a trip, you can achieve your goal within a certain amount of time.

During my technique of training Chinese, I recognized the hardest component to discover the Chinese language is to bear in mind the Chinese characters and their pronunciation. When you have known enough Chinese characters, able to pronounce them as well as understand ways to place them right into significant words, things become much easier for you. All you need to do is only one thing: keep utilizing the Chinese personalities till you recognize with ways to put them into words and also sentences, and find out more characters at the exact same time. Consequently, to find the simplest way of keeping in mind the Chinese personalities is a crucial step in understanding the language in the fastest method.

To master the Chinese characters, writing is the hardest part. Thankfully a student could opt to discover the enunciations first, without learning the writing. This is typically a benefit for international pupils finding out Chinese as their Second language because it substantially shortens the time to master the singing skills for daily conversation making use of Chinese. So my referral is that if you don’t require the ability to compose Chinese personalities you can leave it at the beginning. Learn more about it by following the link Chinese characters.

Currently, do you discover discovering the Chinese language is much easier compared to what you assume? I suppose the response to should of individuals are: “Yes, yet still not easy enough, the enunciation parts are still difficult.” Allow me to tell you some tips just to make it much easier. First off, the alpha bits for pronunciations are stood for by Latin letters, as long as you could bear in mind just how the English letters are pronounced in Latin, you could articulate every Chinese character. Second, there are 4 tones in the pronunciation of Chinese characters, and also each character pronounces 1 or 2 of the 4 tones. In a particular sentence, each character has just 1 pronunciation with a specific tone, based on the context of the sentence.

My ideal guidance to find out the Chinese language is that you start from finding out 1 sentence at a time. For every sentence you discover, aim to bear in mind each Chinese character: just what does it resemble, how does it articulate with the tone, and also just what does it imply. And afterward, purpose to exercise this sentence whenever you can. Accumulatively if you find out 1 sentence of 7 personalities each day, for a year you could master over 2000 characters, which suffices for fundamental discussions in every day online.

[hackchinese]

How to Learn Chinese

Lean Chinese well isn’t rocket science. There are some things you can do to make it painless or nearly so. You should speak to Chinese people when you get a chance, and in their native tongue. Doing so can improve your Chinese fluency quickly.

1/3 Learning to Speak Mandarin Chinese

1) Learn some basic vocabulary

To learn Chinese, the first thing to do when learning a new language is to memorize some simple yet important words and start practicing with them as soon as possible. Although things like grammar and sentence structure are important, they mean nothing until you develop a basic vocabulary. Here’s a short list to get you started:

Hello = nǐhǎo, pronounced [nee hauw] With 2 third tones. Not “ho” or “how” somewhere in the middle. Listen to a native speaker as a reference.

Yes = shì, pronounced [sher]“ But not as in "sure”. ALWAYS listen to a native speaker, as described with English pronunciations in the learner's minds will be difficult.

No = bú shì, pronounced [boo sher] look above.

Goodbye = zài jiàn, pronounced [zai jee-ian]

Morning = zǎoshàng, pronounced “[zauw-shaung-hauw]”

Afternoon = xià wǔ, pronounced There is almost no clear way to describe the “x” in pinyin with English pronunciations. Look it up and listen to a native speaker say it. Contrary to popular misinformation, the “x” DOESN’T AT ALL sound like “sh”!

Evening = wǎn shàng, pronounced [wang shaung]

Head = tóu, pronounced [toe] with a 2nd tone, that goes up.

Feet = jiǎo, pronounced [jee-yau]

Hands = shǒu, pronounced [show] With a 3rd tone, this goes from neutral to lower to neutral.

Beef = niú ròu, pronounced [nee-o row] but not with the soft “r”, more defined “r”.

Chicken = jī, pronounced [jee]

Egg = jī dàn, pronounced [jee dan] “dan” has a 4th tone, that goes down. Slightly forceful sounding. (not too forceful sounding!) Literally “chicken egg”. When speaking of eggs in general, use this. Specify the egg type by using the animal’s name and then dàn.

Noodles =miantiao pronounced [miàn tiáo]

Always look up pronunciations of every word spoken by a native speaker. Most Mandarin pinyin just simply cannot be described perfectly with English sounds!

2) Learn some basic phrases.

Once you’ve built up a little Chinese vocabulary, you can start working on some basic phrases and expressions that will help you to navigate everyday conversations. Here’s a few to get you started:

How are you? = nǐ hǎo ma? pronounced [nee has mah] (see above for pronunciations)

I’m fine = wǒ hěn hǎo, pronounced [wuh hen hau]

Thank you = xiè xiè, pronounced There is almost no clear way to describe the “x” in pinyin with English pronunciations. Look it up and listen to a native speaker say it. Contrary to popular misinformation, the “x” DOESN’T AT ALL sound like “sh”! The “ie” part sounds close to “yeah”

You’re welcome = bú yòng xiè, pronounced [boo young xi-yeh]

Sorry = duì bu qǐ, pronounced [dway boo qi] Like with the Mandarin “x” a proper pronunciation described with English letters is almost impossible. As always, I can’t stress enough the importance of looking up native speakers pronouncing the pinyin.

I don’t understand = wǒ bù dǒng, pronounced [wuh boo dong]

What is your surname (family name)? = nín guì xìng, pronounced [neen gway xing](I’m sure you know by now why I just put “x” instead of the phonetics.)

What’s your name? = nǐ jiào shén me míng zì, pronounced [nee-jee-yow shen-ma ming zi]“

My name is _____ = wǒ jiào _____, pronounced [wuh jee-yau]

3) Learn the tones.

Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the same word can mean different things depending on the tone used to express them (even if the spelling and pronunciation are the same). This can be difficult for English speakers to grasp, but learning the tones is essential if you want to speak Chinese properly, and it is the key to learn Chinese language well. There are four major tones in Mandarin Chinese, as well as a neutral tone:

The first tone is a high, flat tone. It is expressed in a relatively high voice, with no rising or dipping. Using the word "ma” as an example, the first tone is expressed in writing as “mā”.

The second tone is a rising tone. It starts at a lower level and gets progressively higher, like when you say “huh?” in English. The second tone is expressed in writing as “má”.

The third tone is a dipping tone. It starts at a medium level, then dips lower before rising again, like when you say the letter “B” or the word “horse” in English. The third tone is expressed in writing as “mǎ”.

The fourth tone is a falling tone. It starts at a medium level and gets progressively lower, like when you are giving a command (such as telling someone to “stop”) in English. The fourth tone is expressed in writing as “mà”.

The fifth tone is a neutral tone. It does not rise or fall, like the first tone, but this tone is expressed in a flat voice. The fifth tone is expressed in writing as “ma”.

4) Work on your pronunciation.

Once you have learned the correct pronunciation of the tones by listening to native speakers (CCHATTY is good for this) and practicing them yourself, you need to work on applying them to words.

This is essential, as the same word can have a completely different meaning depending on which tone is used. For example, using the tone “mā” instead of “má” could be the difference between saying “I want cake” and “I want a coke” – two completely different meanings.

Therefore, when you’re learning vocabulary, it is not enough to learn the pronunciation, you must also learn the correct tone. Otherwise, you could use the word in the wrong context and be completely misunderstood.

The best way to work on your pronunciation is to speak with a native Chinese speaker who can encourage you when you get it right and correct you when you’re wrong.

5) Work on grammar and sentence structure.

It’s a common misconception that Chinese is a “grammar-less” language. Chinese has quite a complex grammar system; it’s just very different to that of English and other European languages.

Luckily, when learning Chinese you will not have to learn any complicated rules involving verb conjugations, agreement, gender, plural nouns or tense. Chinese is a very analytic language, which makes it quite simple and straightforward in some respects.

Another bonus is that Chinese uses a similar sentence structure to English – subject-verb-object – which makes translating back and forth between the two languages somewhat easier. For instance, the sentence “he likes cats” in English is translated as “tā (he) xǐ huan (likes) māo (cats)” in Chinese even when the pronouns change!

On the other hand, Chinese has its own grammar structures which are very different to those used in English and can, therefore, be very difficult for the English speaker to grasp. These grammatical features include things like classifiers, topic-prominence, and preference for aspect. However, there’s no point in worrying about these things until you’ve mastered basic Chinese.

 2/3 Learning to Read and Write in Chinese

1) Learn pinyin

Pinyin is a Chinese writing system which uses letters from the Roman alphabet instead of Chinese characters.

It is useful for Chinese language learners as it allows you to get started with reading and writing Chinese without the time involved in learning traditional characters. There are many Chinese textbooks and learning materials available in Pinyin.

However, it is important to be aware that even though Pinyin uses letters from the Roman alphabet, its pronunciation is not always intuitive to the English speaker. Therefore, it is important to use a proper pronunciation guide when learning Pinyin.

2) Learn to read some Chinese characters.

Although the ability to read traditional Chinese characters is not necessary for learning Chinese, the idea appeals to many people and makes them feel more in touch with traditional Chinese culture.

Learning to recognize and read Chinese characters is no easy task. In order to read a newspaper, the average Chinese reader will need to be familiar with about 2000 different characters – and that’s just the beginning. It is believed that there are over 50,000 Chinese characters in total (though many of them are no longer in use).

The major benefit of learning to read Chinese characters is that you will have access to a broad array of other literature, including Cantonese, Japanese and Korean – all of which use Chinese characters (or a simplified version of them) in their writings, despite the fact that the spoken languages are very different.

3) Learn to write some Chinese characters.

Once you have learned to read Chinese characters, you may be interested in learning how to form them yourself. Writing Chinese characters is a complex skill, which requires patience and a touch of artistry.

The first step in learning how to write Chinese characters is to learn the “radicals” – these are the individual brush strokes that form the building blocks of each character. There are 214 radicals in total – some can stand on their own as individual characters, while others are only used as part of a more complex character.

When writing Chinese characters, the order of the brush strokes is very important and you must follow a specific set of rules – such as top to bottom, left to right and horizontal before vertical. If the stroke order is incorrect, the completed character will not be accurate.

4) Read Chinese texts.

If you want to improve your Chinese reading skills, you’ll need to practice a little reading for at least 15 to 20 minutes a day.

To begin with, you could try using some children’s readers or workbooks (which are nearly always written in Pinyin) to practice your basic reading skills. You should also be able to find some good resources for reading Chinese online.

You can also try to incorporate your Chinese learning into your everyday life. You can do this by reading the Chinese labels on food products at the Asian supermarket, or asking your server for the Chinese language menu at a restaurant.

Once your reading becomes more advanced, you could try to get your hands on a Chinese newspaper (which are printed using traditional Chinese characters) and do your best to read the articles. This is also a good way of familiarizing yourself with Chinese culture and current affairs.

5) Write a little Chinese every day.

In order to practice your Chinese writing skills, you should try to write a little every day, whether in Pinyin or in Chinese characters.

One option is to keep a small personal diary in Chinese, where you write down simple things like a description of the weather, how you are feeling that day, or what you did. If you’re not to say about it, you could ask a Chinese-speaking friend or acquaintance to look it over and check for any mistakes.

Alternatively, you could try to find a Chinese pen-pal to write letters to. This could be mutually beneficial, as you could get some practice writing in Chinese, while your pen-pal could practice their English. You could also ask your pen-pal to include the corrected version of your original letter when replying.

The last way of practicing your writing is to make simple lists in Chinese, like your shopping list, or to make Chinese labels for items around the house.

 3/3 Immersing Yourself in the Chinese Language    

1) Practice with a native Chinese speaker.

The absolute best way to learn Chinese language is just to speak it with a native speaker – this will force you to think on your feet, help with your accent and expose you to more informal or colloquial forms of speech that you won’t find in a textbook.

If you have a Chinese-speaking friend, ask them if they’d be willing to sit down with you for an hour or two each week. They’d probably be happy to help – as long as the coffee’s on you!

If you don’t know any Chinese speakers personally, you could try placing an ad in your local paper or online forum. Alternatively, you could look into finding a Chinese conversation group or oral Chinese class in your local area.

If all else fails, you could try to connect with a Chinese speaker on Skype, one who’d be willing to learn Chinese online with many native Chinese speakers and professional teachers.

2) Listen to  Chinese tapes/CDs.

Listening to Chinese podcasts or CDs is a great way to immerse yourself in the language – even when you’re on the go!

It doesn’t matter if you can’t follow everything that’s being said – just try to be an active listener and attempt to pick out keywords and phrases. Slowly but surely your overall comprehension will improve.

This is a great option for people who have long commutes as they can simply stick a Chinese CD on in the car or listen to a Chinese podcast on the train. You could also try listening while exercising or doing housework.

3) Watch  Chinese films and cartoons.

Watching Chinese films and cartoons is a more fun, relaxed way of immersing yourself in the language,  however, it will still help to expose you to the sounds and structure of  Chinese.

Try watching short cartoons or clips on YouTube, or rent a full-length Chinese film from your local movie store. You may need to use subtitles at first, but try not to rely on them too much – see how much of the dialogue you can understand on your own.

If you’re feeling particularly proactive, you could pause the film after particular words or phrases and try to repeat them – this will help your accent to sound more authentic.

4) Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

The biggest obstacle that will stand in your way of learning Chinese is your fear of making mistakes.

You need to try to overcome this fear – and even embrace it  – if you are to reach your goal of fluency.

Remember that everyone makes mistakes when they are learning a  new language, and you are bound to have your fair share of embarrassing mistakes and awkward moments, but this is all part of the process.

Remember that you are not aiming for perfection when you are learning Chinese, you are aiming for progress. So go ahead and make as many mistakes as you like – as long as you learn from them and continue to improve.

5) Consider taking a trip to China.

Can you think of a better way to immerse yourself in the  Chinese language than a trip to its native land?

China is an amazingly diverse country – from the busy, bustling streets of Beijing to the ancient majesty of the Great Wall. There is something for every traveler – whether you’re looking to immerse yourself in traditional ethnic cultures, to sample the many delicious Chinese delicacies or to travel to the sites of ancient ruins and epic battles.

Alternatively, you could take a tour of other places with large Chinese-speaking populations, like Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and the  Philippines. Just make sure that you are prepared for differences in dialect  (not all are mutually intelligible) before you book your flight! Wish you enjoy learning Chinese.